In remarks at a Washington event sponsored by the tea party-affiliated group FreedomWorks PAC, Bevin painted himself as the only Republican who can beat Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes in what is already among the most high-profile races of the 2014 midterm cycle.

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POLITICO interview: Matt Bevin

“We run a tremendous risk of losing this seat in Kentucky to someone who does not represent Kentucky values,” Bevin said. “We run the risk of losing this seat because of a sense of apathy and a sense of fatigue for the career politician that is my opponent in this primary, Mitch McConnell.”

Bevin is still a long-shot candidate for the GOP nod — the powerful McConnell leads him by close to 30 points in some polls — but a number of recent surveys have suggested a tough race may lie ahead for the minority leader.

A poll for the Louisville Courier-Journal released last week found him trailing Grimes 42 percent to 46 percent and that 50 percent of Republicans surveyed view him unfavorably.

But in that poll, McConnell led Bevin 55 percent to 29 percent in the primary, and Grimes led Bevin 43 percent to 38 percent in a general election matchup. Still, other polls going back several months have shown a close race against Grimes in the red state, though McConnell is still the favorite.

“There are many reasons why who I am as a real person, in the real world, resonates with people,” Bevin told reporters, pointing to his family, military and business experience.

He added that Grimes “cannot get the anti-Mitch vote when she’s running against me. That’s a significant chunk of the voting bloc that are simply voting against him.”

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore, pointing to a recent Rasmussen poll, responded later Monday: “Matt Bevin is reaching pathetic lows in misrepresenting himself to appear credible. Polling actually shows that self-identified liberals are the only group more willing to elect Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell.”